Contribute to drone project NU.nl

Translated from original.

NU.nl is researching drone flights above the Netherlands and needs the help of our readers. Register yourself to work on a potential news story.

The government regularly publishes data on drones: unmanned aircrafts that traverse our airspace, commissioned by the government. A section of that airspace has to be cleared for a few hours to let the drones fly. The reservations of those sections are published by the government.

Through that, it’s possible to see how often and where these unmanned aircrafts if flown. Maybe they fly in your neighbourhood.

NU.nl is curious where the government flies and how often that happens. As said, that can be checked through the published data. However, the data is not easily accessible (and besides, that’s not required). The information is in PDF format.

That’s not something we can work with immediately. To get a good insight in the flight movements of Dutch drones, we must convert the dates, locations, times and coordinates from PDF to spreadsheet.

You can help us to convert these files to intelligible information. Many hands make light work. Who do you get in return? Of course, our big thanks. We also mention your Twitter-handle or non-commercial website when we publish our research.

Why participate?

  • You participate with an experiment of NU.nl
  • You can help make news
  • You’re mentioned in an potential publication
  • You get insight in official documents on flight movements of drones in the Netherlands

When interested, please contact jerry@nu.nl.